that shrunken head has the angriest eyes, I said.
Is it because he is dead? Because he is dead?
No, that one is Fred. He’s always been mad.
Maybe he’s sad, I suggested, maybe he’s sad.
Fred glared at me and stuck out his tongue.
Another head threw snot my way, not to be outdone.
Why do you keep these? I asked my friend Shay.
They creep me out but keep salesmen away.
None of my shrunken heads are happy the tribal chief said.
Was he not quite upside up in his own oversized head?
Did he not know that most skulls do not like to be shrunk?
Maybe he said it because he was a tiny bit drunk?
The last batch I made came out happy and gay.
I am so irritated with these three, I may throw them away.
Throw them away! Screamed the tribal chief’s wife.
She is so terrifying, I am surprised that he still has his life.
For she is the one who likes heads to be shrunk.
She wears them as necklaces, she has a whole trunk.
What is wrong with this batch? She shrieked at the chief.
I sneaked away then, and believe me, it was a relief.
The evil stepmother, hostile attitude
Spiders feed their children with their own blood
She hated her stepdaughter, who was lovely and caring
Love does not flow through breast milk or blood
Dreams were shattered
The prince was getting married, everyone was invited
Stepdaughter was put to work, poor thing
We all remember how this ended
- the sweetness of a budding love
A fairy with a magic wand
a prom dress and glass shoes ... "swish"
Imagine how small our heads will be when they replace the brain with an AI chip.
©7/21/2023
the sun struggles
to get out of bed
on dismal gray days
we shrink from each other
lower our heads
Sadness within me is my skald,
Ignorant world, taunting my afterworld,
Why is my soul in this soil pinfold...
The sky is filled with dark enshroud,
Am dumbstruck, thunderstorms cloud...
Love is an unloved harken,
The heart in me, a shrunken token...
Fey reliquary in the sand,
Buffing the defoliated leaves off my land,
She lay her tears on my heartland...
Miseries of the silenced one...
Tortured hell gone...
Communication explosion's legacy
~ shrunken, annoying world
Picture #1
March 28, 2018
Entry in 'Monoku Pick a Picture What Cha See #2' Contest
Sponsor: James Edward Lee, Sr.
Shrunken By Half
At work my time is spent
Again, energy I expend
To work is quite okay
had there a room to play.
I’m fan belt on rollers
Stretched to all the limit
Lusting cents and dollars-
It’s true I must admit.
Half of me am family
Whom to spare its time
To Love and not be wily
In every adverse clime.
Half of the other part;
work and its heavy load
Two parts of me apart
Yet spinning in one road.
The antagonistic speed
One side of me will shrink
Which one would I need?
My Family I should think!
03rd Oct’ 2013
It wasn't that she couldn't read
It was just instructions she failed to heed
For on the back was a washing label
100% fact, 0% fable
Perhaps she thought it was a lie
"Drip dry" "Drip dry" "Drip dry"
Before they were washed the fit was roomy
And I would say it's safe to assumey
That deep within her Christmas heart
She longed for a gift from old Walmart
For as they tumbled in the dryer
And the heat got higher higher
A man's size large became a small
Becoming short instead of tall
Now it wasn't that she pulled a *****
The sweats just got a brand new owner
"Hello" to Kris, to Jim "Good-bye"
"Drip dry" "Drip dry" "Drip dry"
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.